Thill-coupling.



E. ERIGKSON.

THILL COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 15,1910.

Patented May 30, 1911.

Ii-gi WITNESSES m m A EDWARD ERICKSON, OF WAHPETON, NORTH DAKOTA.

THILL-COUPLING.

ooaaai.

Application filed September 15, 1910.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 3%, 1911.

Serial No. 582,280.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD ERIoKsoN, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Wahpeton, in the county of Richland and State of North Dakota, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Thill-Couplings, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to thill couplings and particularly to an anti-rattler attachment coupled with a device for holding the An object of this invention is to provide novel means for holding a thill against rattling coupled with novel means for holding the pintle bolt in place without the use of a nut applied to the said pintle bolt, the said invention having for its further object the utilization of a novel form of spring for holding the thill and for retaining the pintle in place, the said spring being removable from the pin for the purpose of renewing worn or broken parts.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists in the details of construction and in the arrangement and combination of parts to be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification wherein like characters denote correspond ing parts in the several views, and in which- Figure 1 illustrates a top plan view of a fragment of a vehicle axle with the invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 illustrates a view in elevation of a thill coupling with the axle in section; Fig. 3 illustrates a front view of the axle and thill coupling with the thill omitted; and Fig. 4: illustrates a perspective view of the anti-rattler device and pintle bolt.

In the drawings 5 denotes the axle, 6 a clip and 7 the usual joint leaves connected to the clip, the said joint leaves being provided with the usual apertures (not shown) for the reception of the pintle bolt 8.

The thill iron 9 is provided with the usual apertured boss 10 which is designed to receive the pintle bolt 8 and as shown the pintle bolt is provided with a head 11 which is offset with respect to the pintle bolt proper, the offset extending rearwardly of the thill iron when the pintle bolt is applied to the joint leaves.

An anti-rattler spring 12 is formed of a length of wire doubled on itself to form a loop 18, the wire being then extended longitudinally to form the lip 14 which is designed to rest on one of the joint leaves. The parallel sections of the wire are then bent downwardly. The portion 15 of the wire is then oflset with relation to the section 16- of the wire, the said section 16 extending approximately horizontally when the device is in place, whereas the section 15 is offset forwardly and extends under the boss 10 so as to partially embrace the said boss for the purpose of increasing the bearing surface of the spring on the boss. Both of the sections 15 and 16 converge to form the parallel sections 17 and 18 which lie approximately vertically and terminate in the extensions 19 and 20 respectively which are looped to form the eyes 21 and 22 respectively which eyes are bolted to the head 11 of the pintle bolt by means of the bolt 23 although instead of the bolt 23 the ends of the spring may be riveted or otherwise secured to the head 11. The spring has the vertically disposed section 2 1 which with the section 17 and the offset section 15 bears against the boss of the thill iron and holds the thill iron and pintle bolt against rattling. It is possible to increase or diminish the tension of the spring on the thill iron by adjusting the front strand of wire forming the anti-rattler spring or the said spring may be further spread by a wedge 25 applied to the loop 13, as shown in Fig. 1.

I claim In a thill coupling, a clip provided with spaced apart lugs, a bolt for suitably supporting a portion of a thill end bet-ween said lugs, said thill end being spaced from said clip, a spring formed of a strip of metal bent to form members substantially oppositely-disposed and spaced apart throughout their length, said spring comprising end portions adapted to overhang and rest on said lugs and intermediate depending portions adapted to be removably positioned between and to bear against said clip and the end of said thill, said depending portions comprising vertically arranged members normally lying substantially parallel to and adapted to bear against the inner sldes of sald lugs to prevent accidental displacement of said depending portions, and means for pivotally connecting the end portions of said spring at one side to said bolt to prevent accidental Withdrawal of said bolt and to permit said spring to be swung on its pivotal connection to disengage said intermediate depending portions from said clip thill end and lugs EDWARD ERICKSON. Witnesses CHAS. E. WVOLFE, F. B. SOHNELLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

